Obies Using Languages: Talia Greenberg ’15

Talia Greenberg is a member of the Oberlin Class of 2015. She is a Psychology major who speaks Hebrew, Spanish, and Arabic, and she created the Hebrew Table so that students and faculty can use Hebrew in an informal lunch setting.

I have used Hebrew in a private reading in Hebrew language and literature, in parsing Hebrew Jewish texts in other Jewish Studies classes and private readings, in reading Torah and leading Jewish religious services at Hillel, in talking with some of my Israeli/Hebrew-speaking Jewish friends on campus, in singing with CHALLaH cappella and arranging Hebrew music for the group and teaching the pronunciations to other singers, and at Hebrew Table in Stevenson.

I use Spanish for teaching SITES. I’ve used Arabic in taking ARBC 101 & 102 and in social interactions with students from those classes. We also used some Arabic in one song in CHALLaH cappella, so I again instructed the group in pronunciation.

I’ve relied heavily on professors to engage me in language use: Ari Ofengeden used to greet me in Hebrew whenever I ran into him on campus, Mahmoud Meslat taught me all the Arabic I know, and if not for Kim Faber and her SITES program, I don’t know if I would have prioritized using my Spanish at all at Oberlin.